Second GBP generated for my business but profile not marked as duplicate

[gbphelpme]

I have a puzzle with two near-duplicate GBPs that I'm looking for some help with.

I’ve already posted in the Google support forum about this and they are saying to request a merge of the profiles, but they are not marked as duplicate in dashboard so I can’t do that.

Profile A is an established, active SAB GBP. It was physically verified at Address A but has since converted/reverified via video chat an SAB a while ago when I moved/no longer had a storefront. When it was reverified, they did not ask me for an updated address since it is an SAB. But I did enter my new address in the reverification form when I went through that process.

Recently, I discovered a a new profile has been generated/created with the same info as Profile A. However, this profile is a storefront profile with the new address I’ve moved to, which is now where the business is based out of but an SAB.

I have claimed this profile (it auto verified as storefront) and removed the address/made it an SAB since the business is not yet a storefront, it’s a duplicate, and I don’t want customers to be misled or violate Google TOS.

The profiles are not marked as duplicates in the GBP dashboard (I think this was because they were physically verified at different addresses) so I can’t request a merge via support form even though all the other business info is identical.

I am considering these options for next steps:

Add the new address to the established SAB and reverify as a storefront/hybrid so the address matches the additional profile. I’m currently preparing to do that anyway. I am waiting on signage so Google will verify it as a storefront. Then I could request a merge/removal of duplicate profile in a video chat (or support form if they don’t let me).

Contact support and request the additional profile to be flagged as duplicate so I can request a merge. However, in my research, I've noticed that Google will generally not mark a profile as duplicates unless the addresses are the same as well.

Can anyone help guide me to resolve this? I want to remove or merge the generated profile so I can verify the established SAB profile as a storefront at this address.

Do you know if I can request a merge or deletion of the auto-generated profile in the reverification video chat?

If I add my business address to the established SAB, will that trigger a reverification only or could that potentially trigger a profile suspension since the generated GBP was physically verified at this address as storefront before I changed it to an SAB?

Thank you!

 

[gbphelpme]

Update: since changing the service area of the generated profile to one city that matches the service area of the legit profile (vs United States), I was able to go into Google Maps and request an edit of the duplicate profile and marked "duplicate of another place." It now allows me to select the real profile as the authentic one, whereas it did not before I changed the service area to a specific city I indicate on the real GBP.

 

[JS Girard]

Update: since changing the service area of the generated profile to one city that matches the service area of the legit profile (vs United States), I was able to go into Google Maps and request an edit of the duplicate profile and marked "duplicate of another place." It now allows me to select the real profile as the authentic one, whereas it did not before I changed the service area to a specific city I indicate on the real GBP.

I can confirm: in the case of SABs, the service area essentially serves as the address for the purpose of duplicate detection, so they need to be fairly similar if you're trying to get SABs to merge. They don't have to be completely identical (and indeed we've even seen the occasional undesired mergers where they weren't even overlapping at all), but it helps a lot.

 

[gbphelpme]

I can confirm: in the case of SABs, the service area essentially serves as the address for the purpose of duplicate detection, so they need to be fairly similar if you're trying to get SABs to merge. They don't have to be completely identical (and indeed we've even seen the occasional undesired mergers where they weren't even overlapping at all), but it helps a lot.

Thank you. That's really helpful to know. I added the largest city I serve before requesting the edit.

In your experience, would it be wise to wait until this edit goes through (or gets rejected) before doing anything else? If so, what would your next steps be?

And I didn't mention this in the post because I tried to edit it and couldn't, but if I can't solve this myself I would be happy to pay a pro for their assistance.

 

[JS Girard]

Thank you. That's really helpful to know. I added the largest city I serve before requesting the edit.

In your experience, would it be wise to wait until this edit goes through (or gets rejected) before doing anything else? If so, what would your next steps be?

And I didn't mention this in the post because I tried to edit it and couldn't, but if I can't solve this myself I would be happy to pay a pro for their assistance.

You can fire off as many requests for suppression of a profile as you want. Suggestions you make as a user (as opposed to manager of a profile) are easy to track (although they can and frequently do remain in limbo literally forever), I assume you're already doing so.

In my experience, it doesn't make much difference if your're doing concurrent edits while a suggestion is ongoing. It does sometimes help if several people are reporting the duplicate from their separate personal accounts.

 

[gbphelpme]

You can fire off as many requests for suppression of a profile as you want. Suggestions you make as a user (as opposed to manager of a profile) are easy to track (although they can and frequently do remain in limbo literally forever), I assume you're already doing so.

In my experience, it doesn't make much difference if your're doing concurrent edits while a suggestion is ongoing. It does sometimes help if several people are reporting the duplicate from their separate personal accounts.

That makes sense. Yes, I made the edit on the user end vs manager end. I will have others report the duplicate also. I appreciate your feedback.